Chapter 194: Golden Skeleton

Deep within the cavern interior, the heavy, rhythmic striking of hammers against metal reverberated persistently.

Emma and Thunder stood stationed before a massive metallurgical furnace, both hands gripping mallets as they relentlessly pounded away at glowing, cherry-red blocks of Golden Mithril. Sweat trickled down their temples, soaking their garments through. Every single time a hammer descended, their arms shuddered from the ferocious recoil.

Surrounding them stood ten skeletal figures, staring fixedly down at Thunder and Emma.

They bore no resemblance to the fragile, petty skeletons patrolling the external mining sector. Their bones gleamed with a rich golden luminescence, each individual vertebra appearing as though cast entirely from metal. A single glance was ample to confirm they outclassed those ordinary prison guards by leagues.

A skeleton lingering near the furnace tilted its head slightly. Golden fires flickered within its hollow eye sockets.

"Keep going, human!"

A grating, parched voice rang out; unexpectedly, these skeletons were communicating in the universal human tongue, ensuring both Thunder and Emma could comprehend every word.

Thunder gritted his teeth, hoisting his hammer back up. Emma offered no reply either. She simply lowered her gaze, zeroing in on a fissure across the ore block and swinging downward with all her might.

Clang!

The piercing, metallic shriek echoed wildly across the cavern.

Ultimately, this batch of Golden Mithril was successfully refined. The raw ore blocks had transformed into pristine ingots, gleaming brilliantly like sunlight trapped deep beneath the earth.

The ten golden skeletons stepped forward instantly. Gathering up the newly finished Golden Mithril, they departed the chamber one by one, not deigning to spare another word for the two humans.

Only two skeletons remained behind to guard Emma and Thunder.

The pair released their hammers, virtually collapsing straight onto the stone floor in unison. Their arms were so utterly numb that even lifting them triggered shooting pains.

Emma offered a faint, dry laugh, her voice raspy.

"Never dreamed I’d end up reduced to this state."

Thunder let out a dry cough. Noting her ash-white complexion, he gestured toward the satchel resting nearby.

"You should eat something. Restore your stamina first."

Emma unzipped the pouch, retrieving a loaf of bread and a canteen of water. She snapped off a portion, tossing a few slices to Thunder before biting into a small piece herself.

Thunder bolted his food down, then lowered his voice to inquire:

"Emma, do you have any clue what those skeletons need Golden Mithril for?"

Having been captured later than her, various details remained obscure to him. Yet one stark reality was impossible to ignore.

The skeletal monsters were growing stronger by the day.

Initially, a mere three skeletons possessed the golden hue. Presently, their numbers had swelled to ten. The golden coloration across their bones was likewise deepening steadily, as though they were being nourished straight by the very Golden Mithril the captives were excavating and refining.

"They’re evolving at a terrifying speed," Thunder stared toward the exit portal the skeletons had just vanished through. "If this keeps up, before long we won’t even possess a window to fight back."

Emma took a swallow of water, remaining silent for a long beat.

"Those skeletons are nothing more than small fry."

Thunder froze.

He pivoted to gaze at her. Despite her exhaustion, Emma retained a composed demeanor that made it impossible to guess what she was plotting.

"What do you mean by that?"

Emma didn’t answer immediately. Her eyes drifted toward the deepest recesses of the cavern, where the fiery glow of the furnace could no longer reach. A moment later, she spoke in a measured drawl:

"Their Boss..."

She paused, as though weighing whether or not to voice the thought aloud.

"By now, it’s probably earned the right to genuinely be called a Golden Skeleton."

Emma hadn’t spent her entire career operating merely as a Dungeon miner.

Everything originated from a bizarre piece of intelligence: an unconfirmed report claiming that a newly discovered cave-type Dungeon might harbor hidden veins of anomalous metal emitting a dazzling golden aura.

Emma had led a team of miners and geological specialists inward to scout the sector. At a glance, that Dungeon hadn’t appeared overly complex. Its interior played host solely to a tribe of Goblins, who tunneled shallow shafts through the rock walls to establish their nests.

Once they cleared out the Goblins, Emma’s team commenced surveying operations.

"Sister Emma, look at this!"

The shout rang out from a low, narrow side-tunnel barely tall enough for a person to crawl through on hands and knees. A miner was kneeling beside the rock face, holding up a fragment of ore newly pried loose from a crevice.

Emma accepted it.

The specimen weighed substantially heavier than its size suggested, its rough surface coated in a rind of gray stone. Yet along the freshly fractured edges, a pale golden radiance flickered underneath, resembling a stray ray of sunlight buried deep within the mountain. She could distinctly sense a peculiar wave of energy radiating from within.

This wasn’t ordinary metal. It was a native product unique to this Dungeon, boasting properties Emma had never encountered before.

She immediately ordered her team to package two portions of the ore, entrusting them to a hunter tasked with carrying them out to ship straight to Thunder.

Thunder was a blacksmith. If anyone understood the intrinsic value of this metal, it was bound to be him.

Once the ore samples were dispatched, the mining crew commenced full-scale extraction of the golden-shimmering veins. They labored with meticulous caution, documenting every single rock layer and fracture line embedded within the cavern walls. The deeper they pushed, the denser the ore concentration became.

Then, an abrupt fracturing sound cracked across the air.

A miner’s pickaxe, driving forcefully into the rock face, caused a massive slab of stone to collapse inward. Debris cascaded down, exposing a wider void than anticipated lurking just behind.

Not a single soul in the squad uttered a sound.

From the fissure exhaled a bitter gust of frigid air, carrying the reek of damp earth alongside a sickly, metallic stench reminiscent of long-rusted iron buried deep underground.

Emma raised her hand to signal the team to halt.

Beyond this barrier wall lay no mineral vein.

It was a cavern.